This nutritious and flavor-packed Sun-Dried Tomato-Couscous Salad combines sun-dried tomatoes, toasted almonds, cucumber, couscous, and baby spinach. This salad is dressed with a flavorful lemon vinaigrette.
Sun-Dried Tomato-Couscous Salad
It’s no secret that I love adding quinoa to salads. (This Caprese Quinoa Salad, Thai Quinoa Salad, and this Sweet Potato-Quinoa Salad are on current rotations at our house.) But, surprise! Today I’m mixing it up a bit by using couscous in place of the quinoa. This isn’t the first time I’ve shared couscous in a salad; this Greek Couscous Salad has been one of the most popular salads on the site this past year!
Apparently, I’m not the only one obsessed with a big, hearty salad! 🙂
My sister actually tried this salad at my house when I first tested it, and she couldn’t stop talking about it. She asked me for the recipe so I took a photo of my notebook with scribbled recipe notes and she re-created it the very next day for a dinner party. After getting multiple requests for the recipe, she called me and said my notebook page needed to be published ASAP and so here it is — as quick as I could get it up!
Salad Ingredients
- Couscous: One of my favorite things about couscous is how quick it is to fix. From start to finish it can be ready in 10 minutes or less! There are several different types of couscous, so you want to make sure to get the small (Moroccan) couscous so it cooks up in this short amount of time. Israeli couscous has much larger grains and takes longer to cook.
- Baby spinach: I like to give the spinach a quick coarse chop so it integrates better with the couscous and other ingredients. Plus, it’s easier to eat!
- Sun-dried tomatoes with herbs: These are my current favorite sun-dried tomatoes. They’re sliced (julienne cut) and packed with herbs and olive oil so they add loads of flavor to this salad without extra ingredients. I recommend avoiding the sun-dried tomatoes in a packet; look instead for the olive oil-packed tomatoes.
- English or Persian cucumbers: They’re sometimes labeled as salad or mini cucumbers. Regular cucumbers don’t work as well because they lack flavor and are too watery.
- Almonds: I take sliced almonds and toast them in a skillet. It’s easy, but if you’re looking for a shortcut, you can skip the toasting step or buy candied almonds at the store. (These honey-roasted almonds are our favorite.)
Lemon vinaigrette
We dress this Sun-Dried Tomato-Couscous Salad with a light, fresh, healthy, and tangy (but slightly sweet) vinaigrette. There’s Dijon mustard, lemon juice, dried basil, vinegar, and olive oil in this one, and when all these great ingredients are combined, they pack a flavor punch! This is one of the go-to dressing recipes that I always have on hand to drizzle over salads or roasted veggies. Here are a few tips:
- Dress to your preference. I love a generously dressed salad, but you may feel differently. Add the dressing slowly and to your personal preference. You likely won’t want the entire batch of dressing on this salad, but then again, you just might want it all! I’d rather you have more than not enough. Leftover dressing stores nicely for up to a week in an airtight container in the fridge. (See “quick tip” below.)
- We use leftover dressing over roasted vegetables, side salads, and raw garden veggies.
- Use fresh lemon juice. Bottled lemon juice doesn’t pack the same flavor as fresh, and lemon is the main flavor here. If you’d like an even stronger lemon flavor, add some lemon zest to the dressing.
Quick Tip
Leftover dressing will likely separate and solidify a bit since olive oil solidifies at cold temperatures. Simply let the dressing stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes and then shake to re-combine– and it’s ready to use! If you don’t want extra dressing (and prefer a minimally dressed salad) feel free to make a half recipe of the dressing — it halves nicely!
Sun-Dried Tomato-Couscous Salad Variation Ideas
This salad is so easy to customize! While I wanted to keep this recipe as basic and simple as possible, there are so many different things that could be added. Our personal two favorites are diced avocado and feta cheese.
Below are a few other ideas:
- Add some protein: this Sun-Dried Tomato-Couscous Salad lends well to adding additional protein; I recommend leftover shredded rotisserie chicken — a lemon-herb flavored one if you can find it! A side of grilled chicken is also a great option. For a vegetarian option, try some roasted chickpeas or white beans.
- Swap out the couscous: Try cooked and cooled quinoa instead!
- Switch out the nuts: The almonds can be left out entirely. You could also use a different (toasted) nut instead.
- Use fresh cherry tomatoes: Halved cherry tomatoes will work great, either in addition to or instead of the sun-dried tomatoes.
- Add more veggies: If you want even more toppings, add in some more veggies. Some ideas include Kalamata or black olives, artichoke hearts, roasted red bell peppers, chopped green bell pepper, and pepperoncini.
Sun Dried Tomato Couscous Salad FAQs
If you aren’t familiar with couscous, it is a tiny ground pasta made from semolina wheat and mixed with water. While most other kinds of pasta are mixed with water and eggs and formed into sheets, couscous is made by rubbing semolina between wet hands until tiny pieces are formed. That couscous is then dried and you can later cook it in boiling water! Cool right?!
There are also different kinds of couscous — Israeli couscous (still a type of pasta) has granules that are much larger (think the size of a small pearl; that couscous is used in this Italian couscous salad!) For this recipe, we’re using regular (Moroccan) couscous.
- Start by making the couscous. Couscous takes mere minutes to make! You’ll start with boiling water (1 cup of dry couscous gets boiled in 1 and 1/2 cups water). Once the water is boiling, you’ll add in some salt and oil or butter (if desired).
- Next, you’ll add the couscous to the boiling water, give it a stir, cover the pot with the lid, and remove it from heat. That couscous will steam for 5 minutes and then it will be ready! Once it’s steamed, you can fluff it with a fork and then chill it for the couscous salad. I like putting it in the fridge while I prepare all the veggies.
- While the couscous is chilling, you can chop the sun-dried tomatoes, cucumbers, and spinach for this couscous salad! You can also toast the nuts (if you’d like).
- The last step is the simple dressing. Add everything to a Mason jar, shake to combine, and it’s ready to go!
From solely a calorie perspective: One cup of prepared regular couscous has 176 calories and there are about 210 calories in white rice. There are 222 calories in one cup of prepared quinoa. Beyond calories, there are many various health benefits for all three options to consider. In this couscous salad, you can use regular couscous, whole wheat couscous, or quinoa interchangeably!
Couscous is technically a type of pasta.
Typically couscous salad includes veggies, maybe a protein, and a dressing.
Fresh salad ingredients of course! The sun-dried tomatoes, cucumbers, and spinach pair incredibly well with cooled couscous.
Here are some other recipes that use couscous:
Sun-Dried Tomato-Couscous Salad Storage
Once dressed, this salad doesn’t store well. The dressing wilts the spinach, bloats the couscous, and softens the almonds. I recommend only dressing what you will enjoy the same day.
Store dressing and salad separately, combining them right before enjoying.
More Salad Recipes:
- Italian Chopped Salad California Pizza Kitchen copycat recipe!
- Olive Garden Salad with an Italian-inspired vinaigrette
- Tuna-White Bean Salad with a zippy lemon dressing
- Mango Salad with a cinnamon-yogurt dressing
- Costco Kale Salad with a creamy poppy seed dressing
Sun-Dried Tomato-Couscous Salad
Equipment
- Medium pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup couscous see note 1
- 3/4 cup packed sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, coarsely chopped, see note 2
- 2 cups Persian cucumbers coined and halved, 4 cucumbers, see note 3
- 1 (6-ounce) bag baby spinach coarsely chopped, 6 cups
- 1/3 cup toasted almonds
- Feta cheese optional
Lemon Vinaigrette
- 2 lemons
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1-1/2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard not regular mustard
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Prepare couscous according to package directions; don’t forget to add the suggested amount of salt! Fluff with a fork and place in the fridge to cool.
- Meanwhile, prep the veggies. Coarsely chop sun-dried tomatoes, coin and halve cucumbers, and coarsely chop spinach (discard large stems).
- Add sliced almonds in an even layer to a dry pan (don't add oil) and place on medium-high heat. Stir the nuts every 15 seconds for about 1–3 minutes or until the color slightly darkens and they start to smell good. Watch these carefully as they can go from perfectly toasted to burned quickly!
- Juice lemons to get 3 tablespoons juice. In a large mason jar, combine lemon juice with all dressing ingredients. Season to taste (I add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper). Seal jar and shake to combine. Store dressing in the fridge until ready to use. Shake again before dressing the salad.
- Add spinach to a large bowl, add cooled couscous on top and toss together. Add tomatoes, cucumbers, and toasted almonds. Gently toss everything to combine. Add the dressing (to desired preference, you may not want it all) and toss again to coat everything. If desired, add feta cheese. Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi! Can I make this a day in advance, without adding dressing or almonds. Or will cucumbers and spinach get watery?
I’d store everything separately, the cucumbers and spinach should be okay if they are very fresh!
I made this tonight for dinner. My wide and I loved it. Simple and can be served as a side or a salad, quite refreshing. Go easy on the dressing.
So happy to hear you both enjoyed this salad! Thanks for the comment and review 🙂
I can’t wait to make this for lunches! I always have quinoa on hand in the pantry so I’ll probably use that. I’m on a big sun-dried tomato kick lately too! YUM 🙂